ne morning, 'although I must admit that many impulses and
movements that come naturally to you are acquired by me with difficulty.
Last evening's attempt at leap-frog, for example, has left me so stiff
that I can hardly move, and I assure you that it has never before
occurred to me to climb that tree all the years I have known it. Perhaps
in a week or so, when my hands are healed, I may try again. But I can
see, Sim, that it must be very good to be a boy--very, very good.'

'Why yes, Billykins,' Chimp broke in, 'but you don't know really
anything about it yet. And I'm afraid you can't know on this island.
There isn't the company and there isn't the means. I can't even make you
an apple-pie bed, when you sleep in a single blanket; and a booby-trap
needs a door. And when there are only two people, and no one else to
laugh, it's no fun to stick a cactus in a fellow's chair. Tuck, too!
What do you know about tuck? What can you know about tuck when there's
no shop for chocolate and Turkish Delight and things like that? Tinned
stuff is all very well, but it gets jolly tedious. And birds'-nesting,
and ratting, and setting night lines, and dodging game-keepers, and
breaking into orchards! You haven't even elastic to make a catty with,
or so simple a contrivance as a fish-hook. Still we might rig up a bow
and arrow.'

'But,' the Hermit objected, 'there is nothing to shoot.'

'Oh yes!' said Chimp, 'sea-gulls.'

'We can't eat sea-gulls,' his apprentice replied. Then anxiously, 'Boys
don't eat sea-gulls, do they?'

'Why, no, Billykins; but that isn't the thing. Bringing them down is the
thing. It's sport.'

That evening after tea, Chimp approached his apprentice with a troubled
expression.

'I think I ought to tell you, Billykins,' he goaded himself to say,
'that some boys fall in love. Not all, mind. I never did it myself--I
think it's footle--but lots and lots do. I suppose you'd like to try it,
you're so thorough; though I don't see how you're going to manage
exactly.'

'You mean,' said the Hermit, 'on an island so poor in opportunities?
Yes, it would be difficult. Still, give me the outline.'

'Well, Billykins, it isn't very clear,' said Chimp. 'I believe though,
that the fellow feels sort of jolly inside while it's going on. But it
never lasts long.'

'And it's not compulsory?' the Hermit asked in some trepidation.

'Oh no, Billy, not at all.'

'Then we will dismiss love along with sport,' was the Hermit's decis